Money laundering? Billions transferred to Mayor Alice Guo’s bank accounts from 2019 to 2024 | ABS-CBN

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Money laundering? Billions transferred to Mayor Alice Guo’s bank accounts from 2019 to 2024

Money laundering? Billions transferred to Mayor Alice Guo’s bank accounts from 2019 to 2024

Victoria Tulad,

ABS-CBN News

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Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo in a Senate hearing in Pasay City on May 22, 2024. Mark Demayo, ABS-CBN NewsBamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo in a Senate hearing in Pasay City on May 22, 2024. Mark Demayo, ABS-CBN News

MANILA — Billions of pesos were allegedly transferred to the various bank accounts of suspended Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo, according to Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian who cited reports from the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC).

In an interview Friday, Gatchalian said the amounts were wired from 2019 to 2024, the bulk of which came in from 2019 to 2022. A big portion of this was allegedly traced from China.

A document from  AMLC which was given by Gatchalian to the media showed Guo has 36 bank accounts.

Gatchalian explained that there is nothing wrong with having several bank accounts but one has to be able to explain the transactions. 

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The senator alleged that the flow of money was suspicious because Guo could not justify where her money came from. Also questionable was the fact that her corporations were not earning as supposedly indicated in their income statements. 

Gatchalian said unjustifiable money that came from outside the country is a classic case of money laundering.

This is why AMLC already filed a case of money laundering against Guo and her alleged accomplices before the Court of Appeals on Wednesday, July 10.

 The court subsequently issued a freeze order on the assets of Guo, her business partner and fugitive Huang Zhiyang, and Lin Baoying, a Chinese charged with money laundering in Singapore.

 In a statement, AMLC said these three individuals are suspected of orchestrating human trafficking and fraudulent activities through the illegal Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) Zun Yuan and Hongsheng, and through the Baofu Land Development, which are all in Bamban.

Meanwhile, Gatchalian expects the Senate arrest order against Guo to be issued Friday or Monday.

He insisted that the issue of Guo’s identity has already been settled especially after a high-ranking official of Grace Christian High School, which is now Grace Christian College in Quezon City, confirmed to his office that the Chinese Guo Hua Ping was their former student from 2000 to 2003. Hua Ping and Guo are alleged to be the same person.

The Senate is still deciding if they will invite an official of the school to the next hearing.

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Pope shows ‘slight improvement’: Vatican

Pope shows ‘slight improvement’: Vatican

Agence France-Presse

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Updated Feb 25, 2025 03:14 AM PHT

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Pope Francis attends the weekly general audience on February 12, 2025 at Paul-VI hall in The Vatican. Filippo Monteforte, AFP 


VATICAN CITY, Holy See -

Pope Francis, hospitalised in critical condition with pneumonia in both lungs, was showing signs of "slight improvement", the Vatican said Monday, while cautioning that doctors would not offer a prognosis.

Amid global concern over the 88-year-old's health, the Vatican said in its evening bulletin that "the critical clinical conditions of the Holy Father demonstrate a slight improvement."

"Today there were no episodes of asthmatic respiratory attacks; some laboratory tests have improved," it said, noting that Francis had worked in the afternoon after receiving the Eucharist in the morning.

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The head of the Catholic Church was admitted to Rome's Gemelli hospital on February 14 with breathing difficulties and his condition subsequently worsened.

Francis was continuing to receive oxygen but "with slightly reduced flows and percentage of oxygen," the Vatican said Monday.

It cautioned, however, that "considering the complexity of the clinical picture" doctors declined to "decide on the prognosis".

Doctors treating Pope Francis have said the drug treatments he is undergoing will take time to show an effect, and on Friday they warned he would remain in hospital for this entire week, at the very least.

Earlier Monday, the Vatican said the pope had spent a peaceful night, with a Vatican source saying the Jesuit was "not in pain", eating "normally" and even "in a good mood".

In the evening he called the priest in the Gaza parish, the Vatican said.

The longest hospitalisation of Francis's near 12-year papacy has brought an outpouring of support for the pontiff, with prayers said around the world and tributes left outside the hospital.

His initial bronchitis developed into double pneumonia and on Saturday the Vatican warned for the first time that the pope's condition was critical.

On Sunday it said Francis continued to receive "high-flow" oxygen through a nasal cannula, while blood tests demonstrated an "initial, mild, renal failure, currently under control".

The latter was "not of concern," the Vatican said Monday.

Cardinals in Rome and members of the public were expected for a prayer for Francis in St Peter's Square Monday evening led by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state.



- 'Hope against hope' -


Gemelli's chaplain, Nunzio Corrao, led a special prayer, saying it was time to "hope against hope" for Francis's recovery.

Well-wishers left candles outside the hospital, where Francis is in a 10th-floor papal suite.

Professor Sergio Alfieri, who leads the Gemelli medical team caring for the pope said Friday that sepsis, a life-threatening condition, was his biggest worry in terms of Francis's health.

"The real risk in these cases is that the germs pass into the blood," he said.

Francis's hospitalisation has sparked fears over his recovery.

"At this moment in history, one feels the need for his figure," Jesuit theologian Antonio Spadaro, who is close to Francis, told the Repubblica daily.

There were "many people around the world, including those in positions of responsibility, who are genuinely concerned because they know that Francis is one of the few who is able to connect the dots in a world that seems to be split", he said.


- 'Open heart' -


The condition of the pope, who had part of one of his lungs removed as a young man, has fuelled speculation about whether he might resign.

He has always been open to following his predecessor, Benedict XVI, who in 2013 became the first pope since the Middle Ages to step down because of his physical and mental health.

But Francis has repeatedly said it was not the time.

Theologian Spadaro agreed that a resignation should not be discussed now.

"The pope is vigilant, he is exercising his pastoral duty even from his hospital bed, and -- although in a different, less visible manner -- he manifests his presence," he said.

German Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Mueller told the Corriere della Sera "the pope is alive and this is the moment to pray, not think about his successor".

But had added: "We all must die. There is no eternal earthly life. The pope has a special task, but he is a man like all men".

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